


What does it change?

by JJBlue1



Category: Joker Game (Anime)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Notes at the end to explain things, References to D no Maou, References to the novel version
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 19:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10519968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JJBlue1/pseuds/JJBlue1
Summary: What has happened short before the OAV started.





	

Yūki eyed the Lieutenant from his comfortable position in his office’s armchair. Sakuma wasn’t one to waste time after he has relied a communication from the General Staff Headquarters, yet now he looked hesitant, as if there was still something he wanted to say but wasn’t sure how to approach the subject… which wasn’t also like him, as he wasn’t the sort that was shy to make questions or to speak his mind out.

Yet there were things though, that Yūki knew Sakuma believed he shouldn’t say and it was pretty obvious his uncertain was due to them.

Benevolently, he decided to give the Lieutenant a little nudge and see if this would help.

“So, for a week, you’ll be assigned to participate in Lieutenant Colonel Īzuka’s mission as he’s understaffed currently. Isn’t it a good chance for you for a promotion?” he asked.

Sakuma exhaled slowly the way he did when he really actually wanted to roll his eyes but knew that wouldn’t be proper behaviour with a superior officer… because, no matter how many times he was told not to act like a soldier, he simply couldn’t forget that he belonged to the Army.

“Lieutenant Colonel… we both know Colonel Mutō has no reasons to wish to give me a chance for a promotion,” he pointed out.

It was crystal clear even to someone like him how Colonel Mutō wanted him out of D Agency for a short while, though Sakuma wasn’t sure why and this was what was puzzling him. Sakuma knew he wasn’t being replaced as liaison, just temporally transferred for a week, and it wasn’t like his presence or absence would radically change how things in D Agency went. Also he was just a Lieutenant with no authority whatsoever to stop whatever the Colonel might want to do so… why?

Yet the Colonel was up on something and, due to this, he didn’t want Sakuma to be there… but, really, which difference it could make Sakuma’s presence or absence was something Sakuma couldn’t guess…

“So?” the Lieutenant Colonel prodded him with an amused grin that clearly meant not only he had figured out what was in Sakuma’s mind at the moment but also which was Colonel Mutō’s plan. Really, there was no surprise whatsoever if people nicknamed this man the _‘Devil King’_. His ability to find out nearly everything was almost creepy… but, Sakuma decided, that wasn’t the moment to let the Lieutenant Colonel’s almost inhuman intelligence to impress him. He wanted answers, he knew he was expected to figure them out by himself and he was simply too stubborn to give up just because it was difficult.

_‘Why the Colonel wants me to get away from here?’_ he wondered again, _‘what does it changes if I’m here or not? Which sort of difference can I make that could be of a hindrance to the Colonel’s plans when the others, apparently, aren’t? One more person wouldn’t really make that much of a difference and even if I’m a soldier and…’_ and then it clicked. The problem wasn’t _‘one more person present’_ but _‘one person present’_. He was the only one who stubbornly respected a curfew that here wasn’t demanded of him.

Whatever Colonel Mutō was up to, it would be done by night and he didn’t want anyone to be around to stop it… and since he didn’t trust Sakuma to stand by, he was just temporally moving him away. Sakuma found himself frowning. He knew the Colonel loathed the Lieutenant Colonel and the whole D Agency but this type of underhanded tricks… they did no honour to the Army they served. Not that Sakuma could do anything in this regard but still…

“So, I take we’ll see in a week,” he replied stiffly to the Lieutenant Colonel. He knew there was no need to explain what he had figured out. He was willing to bet a year of his salary that the Lieutenant Colonel had connected the dots as soon as Sakuma had relayed him his orders… or sooner if he had again shadowed Colonel Mutō again and caught him tattling his plans out to his favourite Geisha.

Yet, to Sakuma’s annoyance, he hadn’t managed to avoid letting his tone hint what he didn’t want to ask, _‘Lieutenant Colonel, you’ll manage to handle whatever Colonel Mutō is up to and make sure we’ll meet when I’ll be back, won’t you?’_ and he knew there was no way the man would miss that.

“Worried for Miyoshi and the others, are you?” he was questioned as, as expected, the Lieutenant Colonel hit right the mark. Sakuma didn’t want to be worried. He knew he had no reasons to. They were more than capable to handle things and if they weren’t it was their problem and anyway whose eight spies were insufferable for most of the time and… and for unknown and mysterious reasons Sakuma had somehow grow fond of them and whatever Colonel Mutō planned to do to them simply wasn’t _fair_ …

“I’m worried they’ll drive to insanity some other poor Lieutenant who doesn’t know them while I’m away. Please, tell them that, even if they don’t like it, the Army needs his men to be left mentally stable,” he decided to reply with a bitter smile, without meeting the Lieutenant Colonel’s gaze for once. Yeah, actually he should worry more for whoever Colonel Mutō will involve and that will end up being the scapegoat if things don’t go as planned. Really, all this was disgusting.

Yūki sighed fondly. In regard to some matters Sakuma would never, never change.

“Not everyone plays fair. You know firsthand how Mutō is a prime example of that. Do you still think it’s a cowardly behaviour?” Of course he did, Yūki could clearly see how Sakuma had this all written on his face in plain, bold, capital letters. Asking him to voice it though… was a mean question. It indirectly meant asking him to express his disapproval on the Army Sakuma wanted to serve to the best of his abilities… even when someone in said Army tried to ruin him.

Yūki knew Sakuma was in an odd position, as loyal to the Army as he was and yet… in a way… loyal to the students in D Agency as well. Deep down, to him, in a twisted way, they were members of the same Army he served. Troublesome, embarrassing companions, below him in ranking and therefore his own responsibility. It wasn’t a technically wrong idea, as D Agency depended on the Army and all its student were Second Lieutenants… but truth was D Agency was viewed as cut out from the Army, a bastard child with a will of his own, who didn’t bow to anyone and that went on a different way.

Yūki was the mind of that _‘bastard child’_ , a bastard child the other, legitimate children wanted to suppress, first of all Sakuma’s direct superior officer, Mutō. There was a not declared war between them, with Sakuma placed straight in the middle of it. Nobody though couldn’t serve two opposing masters at the same time… but Yūki wanted to ensure that, ultimately, he’ll be the one who’ll have Sakuma’s loyalty.

Mutō didn’t deserve him and, for all his faults, Sakuma had potential and…

“A soldier’s duty isn’t to presume his superior officer’s intentions or judge them,” Sakuma stated firmly, as if quoting one of the many standard replies his military training had taught him. His answer lacked his usual firmness though.

Yūki knew what that meant. Yes, Sakuma now believed Mutō was a first class coward and a traitorous bastard. Voicing his feelings for the man would be too close to discussing his loyalty to him and so he kept them for himself. It didn’t matter to him which sort of jackass Mutō was, Sakuma would still fulfil his duty to him as a soldier because this was expected of him. He didn’t try to defend him though and this was telling enough for Yūki.

“Aren’t you afraid for yourself? Aren’t you afraid they’ll use you as a pawn and then discharge you and that’s why they’re sending you away?” the man prodded then. Yūki had figured out what his students couldn’t, what Sakuma hadn’t revealed to anyone because it was a thought he wasn’t allowed to have. Sakuma didn’t want to end up as just a discharged pawn in someone else’s game. Yūki knew such stubborn feeling shouldn’t exist in a soldier’s heart but that had somehow wormed its way into Sakuma’s. Sakuma didn’t want to blindly obey to people who could backstab him for petty reasons any longer… even though he knew he wasn’t allowed to such a luxury as to refuse his obedience.

As he spoke Yūki saw a flicker in the soldier’s eyes, the dawning understanding that Yūki had found out something Sakuma didn’t want to voice but… that was all. Sakuma wasn’t going to act on that feeling. Not yet, at least.

“When the Colonel will decide to… _‘discharge’_ me, he’ll just send me on the frontlines,” he replied simply. _‘And then he will make sure I won’t come back,’_ he left unsaid.

In Sakuma’s mind it wasn’t going to be a bad thing. In his books not only it was much better dying serving his country than being dishonoured but it was also what he’d been prepared to do when he decided to become a soldier. Sakuma knew the Colonel had already decided on that matter, he knew he had already signed the order. All that said order was missing was the date in which Sakuma would be transferred to the frontlines, nothing more. Evidently the Colonel had no idea with whom to replace him as a liaison yet, and that was why he was procrastinating but that was all that was keeping Sakuma still there, rooted in that role that no other soldier wanted.

“This,” Sakuma added motioning to the written order of his transfer, “is merely a temporal reassignment, nothing more.”

“So you might really get the chance to be promoted while at it. Is that what you think?”

“The Lieutenant Colonel Īzuka isn’t so understaffed he’ll need to promote me even if everything were to go extraordinarily well,” Sakuma admitted. Actually Lieutenant Colonel Īzuka wasn’t understaffed at all. Sakuma wasn’t going to say how he checked the whole matter, because it would be admitting out loud he didn’t trust his superior officer’s word anymore. He knew the Lieutenant Colonel would figure out anyway, if he didn’t know it already. Sakuma would clearly have no relevant role that might insure a promotion in the upcoming mission. Probably though, saying that he had taken part to it would make easier to transfer him to some particularly hot zone of the frontline once Colonel Mutō had no more need for him or something like that. Sakuma wasn’t sure and, all considered, he didn’t really want to know.

“And you still don’t have an interest in our spy training,” Yūki stated. Sometimes he too couldn’t help feeling frustrated by how Sakuma still would remain loyal to the Army despite now being able to see its dark sides and risking to be on the receiving end of its shortcoming.

“I’m still a soldier, Lieutenant Colonel, prepared to sacrifice at a moment’s notice,” Sakuma reminded him. Maybe the one true master to whom Sakuma was blindly loyal was his own sense of honour, Yūki wondered, and, if this was the truth about him, then it didn’t matter how many times the Army would prove unfit of his loyalty, Sakuma would still do his duty the best he could. Yūki sighed. It wasn’t like he was going to give up, but he knew that, at the moment, he wasn’t going to obtain anything else and so he simply dismissed him… which resulted in having in his office Miyoshi not much later.

Miyoshi too had his own interests in Sakuma, interests that caused Miyoshi to be aware of everything that regarded the man and that, Yūki was sure, the Lieutenant deliberately pretended to ignore.

Yūki didn’t mind Miyoshi’s interests in Sakuma. He was sure it wouldn’t hinder Miyoshi in the accomplishment of his future missions but he doubted Miyoshi would manage to get what he wanted from Sakuma for the simple reason he believed Sakuma won’t allow it to happen.

Despite Sakuma having likely figured out where Miyoshi’s interest lies and, Yūki could see, being interested in return… that stubborn, stubborn soldier would stick to what he had decided was the right course of action and turn a blind eye on the whole matter. Miyoshi knew as well but, although he wouldn’t force the other, he wouldn’t give up either.

Watching the two of them dance around each other seemed to amuse the other students, who gossiped over it and tried to tease the two people involved with not much luck, both of them calmly insisting nothing was going on. 

How long this little game of theirs would last, before he’ll send Miyoshi out of the country for some mission or Sakuma will be sent on the frontlines by Mutō? Yūki had no idea and didn’t plan to share his thoughts with anyone.

So, all he told Miyoshi was that they’ll had to keep ready for whatever little game Mutō was planning to play with them.

“Did Sakuma-san figured out things in time, this time?” it was all Miyoshi unsurprisingly wondered. Yūki nodded and Miyoshi nodded back, looking pleased. “He’s getting better, isn’t he? You were right, he’s promising,” he commented, studying Yūki. “But he still won’t join, will he?” he added with a frown.

“He still won’t join,” Yūki confirmed and knew that Miyoshi simply couldn’t understand why Sakuma was so adamant on remaining a soldier even though he had the potential to join them. For Miyoshi, all that Sakuma believed were illusions, and since Sakuma proved he was smart enough to understand this, he should just let them go.

For Sakuma though, his beliefs were part of him, imprinted so deeply inside him he believed he wouldn’t exist without them. Even though he’d gotten aware of the weak sides of them… he saw the pro of them and believed they were more important than the con.

“Should we make sure he won’t end up in troubles in his little trip?” Miyoshi asked, his gaze still on him, likely in hope he could figure out his thoughts. Yūki though, was a way too good poker player to let himself be read so easily.

“No need to. Mutō wouldn’t gain anything from harming Sakuma.”

“Won’t he try to get revenge on him as well?” Miyoshi insisted. “It’s clear he feels he can’t be trusted if he’s not involving him in this new game of his.”

“The Colonel has a better target at whom to pay attention right now and Sakuma still has his uses,” it was all Yūki offered. He wasn’t going to explain Miyoshi that getting revenge from Sakuma didn’t really need a complicate plan or anything. As long as Sakuma remained in the Army he was a sitting duck. Mutō could allow himself the luxury to wait.

Miyoshi tilted his head. He likely figured out Yūki was withholding information but also that they could wait. Or that he’ll manage to find out before it’ll be relevant. Actually, to Yūki the fact Miyoshi hadn’t done already was relevant in his own way. Apparently even Miyoshi had things he refused to see.

“Well, if that’s all I’ll go nag Sakuma-san for souvenirs from his trip,” he declared when it was obvious he won’t get anything else from Yūki.

“I’m sure Sakuma will appreciate it more if you don’t do it,” Yūki warned him with an indulgent smile.

“Probably,” Miyoshi agreed. “But that would be no fun, would it?” he commented before leaving. Once alone, Yūki sighed. That game that amused the other students… to him who could clearly see how it would end… it only felt sad. He couldn’t stop it, though, only watch it as it was played under his eyes… till the inevitable end.

* * *

**JJ's Notes:**

**1\. Lieutenant Colonel Īzuka:** Full name Īzuka Kazushi (飯塚一至) and no, he’s not an OC but a legitimate Joker Game character… though he came from the Joker Game live action movie. He doesn’t like Yūki and D Agency so I figured he wouldn’t mind helping Mutō out with his plan.

**2\. Sakuma and the spies:** In his own way I think that Sakuma had never meant harm out of malice to the spies, not even when he strongly disliked them. He tried to be fair with them and, it seems, he didn’t report them when they didn’t behave the way the rest of the Army would behave (though the anime decided to cut the scene from the final script the D Agency students made a discussion that was the equivalent of blasphemy for the Army right in front of Sakuma). So I guess in his own way he worries for them. He’s just not good at showing it.

**3\. The D Agency boys as Second Lieutenants:** In the novel is said that the D Agency students are all given the rank of Second Lieutenant and yes, they’re considered part of the Army. Only D Agency was viewed as cut out from the Army, discouraging its members from acting like soldiers so it’s easy to forget it’s still an Army Agency.

**4\. Sakuma and the pawn thing:** In the Anime it’s left unsaid but a soldier back then wasn’t allowed to decide he _‘didn’t want to be a pawn’_. His duty was to obey, and just that. So, technically, if whatever superior officer wanted to use Sakuma as a pawn and then discharge him, he could. Sakuma is just in the middle of a dilemma between how he wants to be handled by his superior officers and what he knows is his duty as a soldier.

**5\. Sakuma’s fate:** Though I’ve assumed Sakuma is still at D Agency… well, I expect his fate will be to be sent to the frontlines sooner or later. Not only because he’s a soldier and because Mutō holds a grudge against him but because in the novel that’s the fate of the students who were to resign from D Agency, so as to silence them since they would know too much. I’m assuming Sakuma knows what’s the fate of the students who fail to complete their training and expects that same fate to befall on him as well, sooner or later. Sakuma’s not scared about it… after all we’re talking about the guy who sat down and prepared to cut his stomach open without complaining.

**Author's Note:**

> Weird bit written so as to explain myself why Sakuma wasn’t in the OAV story. *sighs* Very likely the general plan was not to have him show up any longer after EP 2 as he’s not even in EP 12 which should be placed not much after EP 2…
> 
> In the novel and in the anime Sakuma’s fate is actually left unknown, he just disappears from the plot, while the D no Maō manga bluntly says that, after this, he was sent on the frontlines because he decided to side with D Agency. While it’s rather likely that his fate was the one written in the D no Maō manga, well, I preferred to assume he wasn’t moved away immediately. Still there’s the problem of him not being around for the Yoru’s OAV and so that’s my version of why he wasn’t at D Agency during the OAV.
> 
> Mutō, despite his horrid character, apparently didn’t want anyone to be involved in the explosion (in fact his men made sure the spies were out and planned to blast the place while they would be far from D Agency) and Sakuma is the only one who, usually, doesn’t get out during the night hence I assumed Mutō temporally reassigned him _‘some other place’_ so as to not kill him off.
> 
> No, not that he cares about Sakuma, I just think killing off a soldier in that explosion might cause a deeper investigation on the causes of the explosion than Mutō might be comfortable about, not mentioning the soldiers involved might be all right with getting rid of spies but not with murdering Sakuma, another soldier, possibly a friend or at least an acquaintance of their as they share the same ranking and the same workplace.
> 
> Also, for who’s interested to know, despite Miyoshi’s nagging, Sakuma refused to agree to bring back souvenirs. He came back with sweets though as, in Sakuma’s books, sweets don’t count as souvenirs and therefore he totally wasn’t giving in to Miyoshi’s demands.


End file.
